LB 




Class J::]32&^^ 
Book r^k ^6 



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^tat^ of iSI|oti? 3slanJi mxh ^tamhnut piantaltottB 



REPORT 



OF THE 



SPECIAL COMMISSION 



ON 



Public Scliool Finance d AJministration 



APPOINTED BY 



RESOLUTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 



APPROVED APRIL 23. 1920 



PRESENTED TO THE 

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 

FEBRUARY 28, 1922 



PROVIDENCE: 

E. L. FREEMAN COMPANY, PRTNTEUS 

1922 



BtuU of Sll?0h? JIalanli nnh l^vamhmct piantattottH 

REPORT 

OF THE 

SPECIAL COMMISSION 

ON 

PoMic School Finance and Aioiinistration 



APPOINTED BY 



RESOLUTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 

APPROVED APRIL 23. 1920 



PRESENTED TO THE 

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 

FEBRUARY 28, 1922 



PROVIDENCE: 

E. L. FREEMAN COMPANY, PRINTERS 
1922 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

MAR 21 1922 






i>tat? of W^l^oht SHlanJi 



Letter of Transmittal. 



To the Honorable the General Assembly: 

In compliance with the requirements of a resolution providing for a 
survey of public school finance and administration, adopted by the 
General Assembly at its annual session of 1920, the Commission 
thereby appointed respectfully submits herewith its report to your 
honorable body. 

Howard W. Farnum, 

Chairman of the Committee on Finance 

of the Senate. 
Frederick S. Peck, 

Chairman of the Committee on Finance of 
the House of Representatives. 

Zenas W. Bliss, 

Chairman of the Board of Tax 

Commissioners. 
William C. Bliss, 

Chairman of the Public Utilities 

Commission. 
Walter E. Ranger, 

Commissioner of Education. 



Summary of Recommendations. 

1. Increase in appropriation for teachers' salaries. 

2. Conformity of law and practice in school year and change in 
time of reports. 

3. Uniform system and preservation of school records with pro- 
visions for complete record of attendance. 

4. Statutory provisions governing construction and use of school 
buildings. 

5. Uniform accounting of school revenues and expenditures and 
annual budget for school expenditures. 

6. Fixing responsibility more definitely and adjusting powers to 
responsibility. 

7. Investment of state school fund and use of annual income 
therefrom. 

8. Increase of minimum salary of teachers and provision in case 
towns are unable to maintain schools of proper standard. 

9. Uniformity in approval of attendance of pupils in private 
schools and required records of attendance therein as in public 
schools. 

10. Protection of schools from interference with school work. 



STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 

Resolution of the General Assembly (No. 11) Providing for a Survey of 
Public School Finance and Administration. 

(Approved April 23, 1920.) 

Resolved, That in view of the financial and administrative needs of our public 
schools and the inability of existing law to produce sufficient revenues, the 
chairman of the committee on finance of the senate, the chairman of the com- 
mittee on finance of the house of representatives, the chairman of the board of 
tax commissioners, the chairman of the public utilities commission and the 
commissioner of public schools are hereby created a special commission and are 
hereby authorized and directed to make a comprehensive study of school finance 
and management, both state and municipal, and to suggest practicable improve- 
ments in law and practice for securing adequate economic support and efficient 
administration of public education in Rhode Island, and to report thereon to the 
General Assembly in January, 1921, with its recommendation for legislative 
action. 

Resolution of the General Assembly (No. 1) Continuing the Commission 
on Survey of School Finance and Administration. 

. (Approved February 1, 1921.) 

Resolved, That the special commission on survey of school finance and admin- 
istration created by a resolution entitled "Resolution providing for a survey of 
public school finance and administration," passed at the January session, 1920, is 
hereby continued in office and directed to report to the general assembly not 
later than January 31, 1922. 

Resolution of the General Assembly Extending the Time op the Com- 
mission ON Survey of School Finance and Administration to Make its 
Report. 

(Approved February 6, 1922.) 

Resolved, That the special commission created by virtue of resolution number 
eleven of the General Assembly, passed at the January session, A. D. 1920, for 
the purpose of making a survey of public school finance and administration, be 
and the same is hereby continued and directed to report to the general assembly 
not later than February .28, 1922, with all the authority conferred upon said 
commission. 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION 



I. Duties of the Commission. 

Object of the Survey. 

The Commission assumed the duties assigned it by the General 
Assembly with the knowledge that it was to examine the operations 
of a long-established and highly developed system of public educa- 
tion, not with the object of finding reasons for radical changes in the 
system or the establishment of a new system but with the aim to 
ascertain remediable defects in school law and practice and to seek 
ways and means of improvement in our educational organization 
with conservation of its integrity. A real crisis in education has 
been recognized throughout the country as evidenced by a shortage 
of teachers, of school accommodations and of school funds. While 
our state has suffered less than some other states from such impair- 
ment of provisions for school education, critical conditions have 
obtained and grave questions have arisen, as was clearly shown by the 
State Board of Education in its report for 1919. In its annual survey 
the Board of Education had found that "our public schools exhibit a 
more prosperous condition than might have been expected amid the 
exigencies of war and its aftermath," that "we have met an emer- 
gency successfully, for a time, but with impaired resources," that 
"we have suffered checks on former progress, loss of gains we should 
have made, influences against future advance, difficulties in the 
maintenance of past standards and that public school education is 
facing a threatening deterioration unless more adequate provisions 
than existing conditions promise be made for school accommodations 
and instruction." Urged by such conditions and issues, the Board 
of Education appealed to the General Assembly for larger state 
support of public education and requested the appointment of a 
commission "to study school finance and to suggest possible im- 
provements in law and practice for a true economic support of public 
education, both state and municipal." The solution of such prob- 
lems was assigned to this Commission as the object of its study. 



Meetings of the Commission. 

The Commission met in September, 1920, and organized with the 
Commissioner of Education as chairman and the Chairman of the 
Board of Tax Commissioners as secretary. 

Plans were formed for a comprehensive study of the economic and 
administrative aspects of our school system; and arrangements made 
for obtaining facts pertinent to the inquiry and printed material 
bearing on questions at issue and their presentation to members of 
the Commission. Subsequently the time available was found to be 
too limited to allow the Commission to make its report in January, 
1921, and the General Assembly passed a resolution continuing the 
Commission in office for another year. For a time, because of other 
official duties of its members, the Commission had held meetings 
infrequently and its work was chiefly investigations by individual 
members with the collection of facts by the chairman and secretary, 
but in the autumn of 1921 regular meetings were held for several 
weeks, until its work was near completion. 

Character of its Work. 

The Commission has made a comprehensive study of both law and 
practice relating to school revenues and expenditures and also of the 
official organization, both state and municipal, for the administration 
of our educational enterprise. It has recognized the state's supreme 
duty under the constitution to insure proper school education for all 
its children and youth, and the function of the General Assembly to 
determine and maintain by law a competent school organization both 
general and local. It further recognizes the obligation of the General 
Assembly to determine what part jn the support of schools the state 
and the town or city shall each bear and what responsibility in the 
administration of schools shall be assigned to state and what to 
municipal officials, mindful of both the principle of local control and 
the constitutional obligations of the state. The existing school 
system being fundamentally sound in principle and law, attention 
has been given to the workings of certain laws that have failed to 
function properly or have been outgrown, to the need of new legis- 
lation to meet new or changing conditions, and to legislative means 
to remedy defects in the law and to secure more consistent and 
effective statutory provisions. Questions at issue have been thor- 
oughly discussed and conclusions reached after searching inquiry 



and deliberation. School finance has been investigated in its 
different aspects. The practice of towns in raising school revenues 
and accounts of expenditures have been sul^jected to critical exami- 
nation. State appropriations and their distribution, together with 
questions of their effectiveness and increase, have been carefully 
considered. Where the present impracticability of certain desirable 
solutions to existing problems has presented itself, the Commission 
has turned its attention to such things as offered an opportunity for 
immediate improvement. Its work has been performed with the 
single purpose of directing its results toward practicable suggestions 
to provide more adequate school revenues and better management 
of schools. It has not sought to expand its recommendations, but 
to limit them to pressing need and obvious improvement. 

II. Conditions of School Finance and Administration. 
State-Town System of Schools. 

It should be remembered in considering the question of public 
education that our laws provide for a distributed responsibility in 
the support and control of public schools. Ours is a state-town 
system. It was created and is governed by laws enacted by the 
General Assembly; all its various offices have been established and 
the duties and powers of all its officers, state ofBcials, school com- 
mittees, superintendents and teachers, are defined by these laws. 
Local school officers and teachers, though appointed by municipalities 
as provided by law, execute a trust for the State and administer 
schools in the interests not only of their communities but also of all 
the people of the state. As a fruition of our civic experience, our 
law-makers have learned to assign to state administration those 
functions that may best be performed for the several communities 
alike and to local control the direct management of schools, uniting 
the public interest of education in a single state-town system with 
distributed responsibilities. The General Assembly is responsible 
for a wise assignment of powers and duties in our school system and 
for its integrity and effectiveness so far as they may be promoted by 
law. The General Assembly determines the amounts the state 
shall expend for support of public schools and places the respon- 
sibility of the remaining support upon towns and cities. 

State support of public schools might range from nothing to one 
hundred per cent. In practice among states it varies from 3 to 70 



10 

per cent. To determine the proper relation between state and 
municipal expenditures for public education is a vital question of 
school finance. 

School Finance. 

State Support of Public Schools. 

x\t the beginning of the existing system of public schools, instituted 
by the act of 1845, the state appropriation provided for one-half the 
expenditures for teachers' salaries, and the requirement of existing 
law that a town must raise for the support of schools a sum equal to 
the amount received from the State indicates public opinion of that 
time on relative state support of schools. The annual state appro- 
priation for teachers' salaries was $25,000 from 1844 to 1854. It 
was gradually increased to $120,000 in 1886 and has remained the 
same for thirty-five years. Other state appropriations, however, 
have been available for teachers' salaries in recent years, namely: the 
annual appropriation for high school instruction, $34,500 in 1921; 
for increase of teachers' salaries in certain to^Tis, $8,500 in 1921; 
for evening schools, $18,000 in 1921; and for special support of public 
schools, $5,000. To these sums may be added $60,000 for teachers' 
pensions. While the State has not. increased its annual appropria- 
tion for ''teachers' money," it has, however, made many special 
appropriations annually in support of public education, as may be 
seen from the following list for 1921 : 

Public Schools, "teachers' money" $120,000 00 

Increase of teachers' salaries 8,500 00 

Supervision of public schools 30,000 00 

School apparatus 4,500 00 

High and graded schools 34,500 00 

Medical inspection 6,500 00 

Industrial and vocational education 15,000 00 

Public schools, special aid 5,000 00 

Evening schools 18,000 00 

Promotion of Americanization 3,000 00 

Education of injured 5,000 00 

Teachers' institutes 500 00 

Educational publications 1,500 00 

Examination of teachers 3,500 00 

Teachers' pensions 60,000 00 

Education of bUnd children 10,500 00 

Instruction of adult bhnd 3,800 00 



11 

Free public libraries $13,500 00 

Traveling libraries and library visitor 3,000 00 

Graduate courses in Brown University 5,000 00 

Phj'sical examination of children for employment 8,000 00 

Emplojment badges 100 00 

Rhode Island College of Education 90,000 00 

Summer session of Rhode Island CoUege of Education 5,000 00 

Mileage for pupils of Rhode Island College of Education 6,000 00 

Rhode Island School of Design 25,000 00 

Rhode Island College of Pharmacy, scholarships 2,000 00 

Rhode Island State College 115,294 06 

Rhode Island State College, building 32,024 00 

Rhode Island Institute for the Deaf 55,700 00 

State Home and School 163,000 00 

Exeter School 110,500 00 

Sockanosset School 100,500 00 

Oaklawn School 18,500 00 

Historical societies 2,500 00 

Humane societies 8,500 00 

Total Sl,093,918 06 

State School Revenues. 

The state school fund now amounts to $256,847.40, from which 
the income in 1921 was $11,301.25. This small income is mei'ged in 
the appropriation for "teachers' money." Expenditures for pur- 
poses of education are paid on appropriations from general funds. 
Except the income from the school fund the State has no definite 
school revenues. Rhode Island has never levied a state school tax 
as many states have successfully done in providing school revenues. 

Municipal Support of Public Schools. 

Towns and cities are required by mandatory provisions of law to 
maintain public schools for thirty-six weeks in each year. It follows 
that with the limited apportionments of state appropriations towns 
and cities must find means to maintain schools. With the constant 
increase in school population and the rapid increase in cost of school 
maintenance, together with a moderate increase in state appropria- 
tions, under existing law from year to year a greater relative burden 
has been laid upon towns and cities until with few exceptions tliey 
support the state's public schools with hardly more than nominal 
financial aid from the State. For example, in 1844 the State paid 



12 

51.72 per cent of teachers' salaries; in 1886, 24.89 per cent; in 1900, 
14.13 per cent; and in 1920, 5.24 per cent. Local taxation for 
schools has risen rapidly in recent years and an increasing share of 
municipal revenues has been devoted to educational purposes. In 
the past twenty-five years the school population has increased 60 per 
cent and school expenditures 240 per cent. 

Inequality of Taxation in Towns and Cities. 

Since taxes are the chief source of school revenues and schools 
must be maintained whether the town's assessed valuation is large 
or small, great inequality of taxation and a wide variation in the per 
capita cost of school education have obtained among towns and 
cities. This inequality among towns is in some degree modified by 
the distribution of state money and obviously would be lessened by 
larger state support. An accompanying table shows a comparison 
of the municipal tax rates for schools, the costs per capita on average 
membership of pupils in public schools, and the average salaries of 
teachers in the several towns and cities. The first column of the 
table, Comparative Cost of Instruction, shows the average appro- 
priations of towns and cities for three years on their assessed valua-- 
tion, which may be regarded as a school tax rate; and the second 
column gives the rank of each municipality in the same. The third 
and fourth columns give the per capita current costs on average 
membership, or the number of pupils belonging, for three years and 
the rating of towns and cities according to amounts. The fifth and 
sixth columns give the average salaries of teachers for 1920 in the 
several towns and cities and the rank of each. Because of different 
standards in fixing assessed valuations and varied methods of ac- 
counting, the table does not give an accurate comparison of costs; 
but the wide disparity appearing from the facts (1) that a citizen in 
one town pays four times the tax a citizen of another town pays, (2) 
that the per capita cost in one town is twice that in another, and (3) 
that the average salary of teachers in one municipality is more than 
three times that in another can be explained only in part by diversity 
in accounting. The threefold comparison of the table gives approxi- 
mate results and shows striking contrasts in taxation, per capita 
cost and the economic recognition of the teacher. 



13 



Comparative Cost of Instruction. 



TOWN. 



Average 
appropria- 
tion for 3 

years on 
each $100 
of assessed 
valuation. 



Rank. 



Per capita 
cost on 
average 
member- 
ship for 
3 years. 



Rank. 



Average 

salary 

of teachers. 



Rank. 



Barrington 

Bristol 

Burrillville 

Central Falls 

Charlestown 

Coventry 

Cranston 

Cumberland 

East Greenwich . . 
East Providence. . 

Exeter 

Foster 

Glocester 

Hopkinton 

Jamestown 

Johnston 

Lincobi 

Little Compton . . , 
Middle town 

Narragansett . . . . 

Newport 

New Shoreham . . . 

North Kingstown . 

North Providence . 

North Smithfield . 

Pawtucket 

Portsmouth 

Providence 

Richmond 

Scituate 

Smithfield 

South Kingstown. 

Tiverton 

Warren 

Warwack 

Westerly 

West Greenwich . , 

West Warwick . . . 

Woonsocket 



Totals . 



S.44 

.78% 
.99% 
.56H 
.30% 
.393^ 

.61 

.41% 

.62% 

.46% 

.48% 

• 48% 

.52% 

.33% 

.78% 

.58H 

.28% 

.263^ 

.24H 

.27% 

.29^ 

.42 

.6Qy2 

.49% 

.611^ 

.27% 

.41 

.28% 

.31% 

.35% 

.42H 

.47% 

.70% 

.57% 

.61% 

.35^ 

.62% 

.51 

$.46 



22 

2 

1 
14 
32 
27 

6 
10 
25 

5 
21 
19 
18 
15 
30 

3 
12 
34 
38 
39 
•36 
33 
24 
11 
17 

8 
37 
26 
34 
31 
29 
23 
20 

4 

13 

9 

28 

7 

16 



$47. 
37. 
37. 
52. 
42. 
33. 
36. 
49. 
35. 
32. 
57. 
58. 
46. 
51. 
44. 
29. 
41. 
37. 
36. 
59. 
52. 
42. 
48. 
27. 
40. 
50. 
26, 
45 
40 
34 
33 
43 
30 
46 
46 
41 
44 
42 
47 



05 
58 
98 
61 
42 
05 
39 
18 
13 
10 
14 
46 
37 
02 
13 
67 
29 
85 
39 
80 
12 
.09 
.55 
.45 
.06 
.52 
.80 
.78 
.07 
.88 
.57 
.26 
.06 
.54 
.79 
.47 
79 
25 
08 



$44.00 



11 
28 
26 

4 
19 
34 
29 

8 
31 
35 

3 

2 
14 

6 
17 
37 
23 
27 
30 

1 

5 
21 

9 
38 
25 

7 
39 
15 
24 
32 
33 
18 
36 
13 
12 
22 

16 
20 

10 



$1,023 

917 

939. 
1,191. 

516. 

680. 

931. 
1,029. 

748. 

939. 

366. 

501. 

528. 

547. 

800. 

754. 

904. 

593. 

916. 

783. 
1,234 

490 

895 

722 

732 
1,056 

710 
1,220 

516 

600 

640 

766 

622 
1,063 
1,135 
1,064 

362 
1,148 
1,104 



.59 
.60 
44 
85 
14 
89 
24 
70 
13 
44 
66 
79 
20 
22 
57 
26 
18 
25 
75 
37 
.68 
.58 
.51 
.28 
.91 
.01 
.30 
.24 
.52 
.00 
.97 
.59 
.44 
,00 
.66 
.56 
.50 
.49 
.79 



11 

15 

12 

3 

35 

27 

14 

10 

23 

12 

38 

36 

33 

32 

19 

22 

17 

31 

16 

20 

1 

37 

18 

25 

24 

9 

26 

2 

34 

30 

28 

21 

29 

8 

5 

7 

39 

4 

6 



$1,068.67 



14 



School Revenues in Cities. 

While in towns the amount of funds for the support of pubHc 
education to be expended by the school committee is determined by 
popular vote in the town meeting, in cities the amount available for 
expenditure by the school committee is fixed by a coordinate branch 
of the city government. In law the school organization is separate 
from other branches of municipal government and the school com- 
mittee is not subordinate to other officers. In cities the school com- 
mittee's dependence on another branch of government for means 
lessens their responsibility and freedom of action. Many cities in 
other ' states have provided other methods of determining school 
revenues and of conserving the freedom of the schools with assurance 
of adequate support. 

State and Local Expenditures for Education. 

A comparison of state and municipal expenditures for pubhc 
education for the past twenty-five years is submitted in the following 
table. Following that is a table showing the decrease of the State's 
relative contribution to teachers' salaries and total current expendi- 
tures for day public schools. From these two tables it may be seen 
that the- State has materially increased its annual appropriations for 
many purposes, but that its relative contribution to teachers' salaries 
has shrunk to a nominal sum. Attention is directed to this deficiency 
because the cost of instruction is the chief expense in school education 
and many towns are dependent on "teachers' money" to provide a 
minimum standard of instruction. A liberal increase of the state 
appropriation for teachers' salaries is the most direct way of im- 
proving schools, especially in rural communities. 

Expenditures for Education. 



YEAR. 


Number 
pupils. 


*State. 


Towns 
and 
cities. 


Total. 


Per cent 
of State 
on total 
expendi- 
tures. 


1895 


57,971 


$470,945.36 


$1,236,516.26 


$1,707,461.62 


27.6— 


1900 


67,231 


347,731 


09 


1,385,757 


10 


1,733,488.19 


25.1— 


1905 


71,425 


385,287 


38 


1,887,612 


90 


2,272,900.28 


17. — 


1910 


80,061 


513,062 


37 


2,317,051 


35 


2,830,113.72 


18.1+ 


1915 


87,064 


797,112 


27 


3,138,472 


21 


3,935,584.48 


20.3— 


1920 


93,501 


1,030,043 


91 


4,569,726 


29 


5,620,497.90 


18.3+ 



15 



♦Items for State in the preceding table include support of state edu- 
cational institutions and all expenditures for educational purposes. 



Current Expenditures for Day Schools Excluding Land and Buildings. 



State 

appropriation 

for teachers' 

salaries. 



Total 

expenditures 

for teachers' 

salaries. 



Per cent 

of 
teachers' 
salaries 
paid by- 
State. 



Total 
State 
apportion- 
ment. 



Total 
expenditures 



Per 

cent 

of 

current 

expenses 

by 

State. 



1920. . 
1915. . 
1910. . 
1905. . 
1900. . 
1895. . 
1890. . 
1886. . 
1885. . 
1880. . 
1874. . 
1869. . 
1865. . 
1859. . 
1854. . 
1849. . 
1844. . 



$156,391 . 66 

155,637.56 

144,620.00 

136,170.00 

132,150.00 

120,000.00 

120,000.00 

120,000.00 

90,000.00 

90,000.00 

90,000.00 

70,000.00 

50,000.00 

50,000.00 

35,000.00 

25,000.00 

25,000.00 



i;2,984,793.30 

1,759,493,00 

1,396,036.07 

1,096,604.86 

935,109.69 

773,503.03 

549,367.38 

482,146.65 

453,687.25 

390,558.34 

355,525.90 

240,176.46 

149,110.99 

135,695 . 52 

92,049.59 

77,500.00 

48,335.76 



5.24 
8.35 
10.36 
12.41 
14.13 
15.52 
21.85 
24.89 
19.84 
23.07 
25.31 
29.14 
33.53 
36.85 
38.02 
32.26 
51.72 



,171.89 

184,897.22 

156,597.73 

146,336.21 

134,799.30 

122,939.47 

121,596.65 

120,869.39 

90,579.95 

90,748.34 

90,000.00 

70,000.00 

50,000.00 

50,000.00 

35,000.00 

25,000.00 

25,000.00 



14,118,763.72 

2,454,455.17 

1.916,715.71 

1,541,970.26 

1,283,595.98 

1,049,027.78 

681,886.60 

585,343.94 

551,538.25 

469,542.17 

431,542.70 

267,176.46 

166,610.99 

151,695.52 

103,049.59 

86,554.12 

55,053.15 



4.81 
7.53 

8.17 
9.42 
10.50 
11.72 
17.83 
20.66 
16.42 
19.34 
20.83 
26.22 
30.01 
32.89 
33.96 
28.90 
45.40 



The foregoing table reveals a condition calling for earnest con- 
sideration. 

A Suggestive Condition. 

While the development of school finance and administration in the 
past seventy-five years and present needs may not require the state 
to restore its former proportional support to public schools, existing 
conditions do demand a new adjustment of the state's relative 
support of the vital service of teachers. To equal the state's relative 
support in 1844 would require $1,500,000, or in 1900, $450,000. An 
increase of $200,000 in the appropriation for "teachers' money" 
would double the state's relative support of instruction as now ren- 
dered. In the condition here revealed the Commission finds urgent 
reasons for its most important recommendation, which is given in 
the following pages. 



16 

School Administration. 

The Commission finds that the laws governing the management of 
public schools are sound in principle and that under them a system 
of public education has been developed which is unexcelled among 
state systems in its constituent organization, adaptation to civic 
needs and efficient operation. It is impressed by the wide recogni- 
tion of the high rank of our pubhc schools among the schools of the 
country. It finds much to commend in the service of school officers 
and in provisions made for school education by towns and cities. It 
finds in some places, however, defects in management as well as lack 
of financial support. In some cases legislation is needed to remedy 
the defects, while in others laws are already sufficient and a better 
performance of duty on the part of school officials is needed. 

The law assigns to the State Board of Education ''the general 
supervision and control of the pubhc schools of the state" and makes 
it responsible for enforcing the laws relating to public schools. The 
Commission is of the opinion that the Board of Education has not 
exercised its full powers for the conservation of the State's educa- 
tional interests in directing the local administration of public schools. 
The lack of definite provisions in law to enable the Board to enforce 
a proper observance of law' and its rules in all cases has doubtless 
lessened the Board's sense of responsibility and has allowed an 
evasion of law and neglect of official duty to obtain here and there. 
Legislation to remedy this defect is essential to insure the proper 
execution of the schools laws. 

The law requires towns and cities to build and equip school build- 
ings and to maintain schools for the instruction of all its children and 
youth. Before 1917 there had been a remarkable period of new 
construction. The annual expenditure for new school buildings had 
increased to $931,718.31 in 1917, but fell to $761,034.08 in 1918 and 
to $291,876.53 in 1919, and rose only to $388,416.97 in 1920. The 
result is that more than a third of our schools have been overcrowded, 
scores of classes or schools have been meeting for part time instruc- 
tion, and doubtless public education has suffered more from a shortage 
of school accommodations than from that of teachers. The Com- 
mission does not believe that any town or city would refuse to supply 
sufficient school accommodations were it fully informed of conditions 
and needs. A way should be found to acquaint taxpayers with the 
actual needs of schools, and school officers cannot escape respon- 
sibility in the matter. 



17 

School committees are charged with the direct management of 
schools and on selection of their memberships depends efficient 
school administration. The Commission finds that school com- 
mittees in general perform their functions as well as other public 
officers, but it does find examples of failure to meet full responsibility 
and to exercise full power, and cases of serious neglect of duty. 
Among the defects of municipal administration of schools are non- 
enforcement of attendance laws, neglect of school sanitation, delay 
in engaging teachers, want of proper school supplies, raising teachers' 
salaries without provisions for securing better teaching, lack of 
comity between towns or cities for interchange of instruction and 
tuitions, competition between committees in engaging teachers, 
neglect in providing adequate supervision and want of true economy 
in expenditures. Some of these defects may in some degree be 
remedied by legislation and in its recommendations the Commission 
has suggested ways of improvement. Other improvement must come 
about in practice through a higher sense of duty and greater com- 
petency of public officials. Definite recommendations for improve- 
ment by the Commission appear in the following pages. 

III. Conclusions and Recommendations. 

From a consideration of conditions as found by the Commission 
and set forth in the preceding part of this report and from a study of 
the various complex problems presented, the main questions at issue 
are how may adequate school funds be provided where they are 
lacking and how may our public schools be operated to insure to 
every child in the State fair opportunity of school education. It has 
already been shown that there is a wide disparity among munici- 
palities in expenditures for schools, in taxation for school purposes 
and, as a natural result, in school advantages. This condition of 
inequality of taxation and educational advantages among towns and 
cities and the repeated efforts to lessen such inequality are as old as 
state systems of schools. Every progressive state for many years 
has again and again enacted legislation, often with good effect but 
never with complete success, to bring about a reasonable equality of 
school education among its children and youth and a fair distribution 
of the burden of taxation for the support of schools among its citizens. 
Obviously, so long as the financial support of schools is laid chiefly 
upon towns and cities, with their differences in wealth, their diversities 



18 

of responsibility and disposition to maintain schools and their varied 
advantages of location and population, glaring inequalities will con- 
tinue. Seemingly the only solution of the general problem, which 
has never been tried, is a reversal .of the principle and practice now 
followed, namely, that the state furnish a part of the financial 
support and require municipalities to determine and supply the 
balance of the funds necessary to maintain schools. Such a policy 
would provide that municipalities alike supply a part of school 
revenues by taxation at a fixed uniform rate, and the state furnish 
the necessary balance and distribute it as needed, leaving local school 
management much as at present. If such a plan were adopted, many 
perplexing problems would be solvable. Among the anticipated 
results and advantages would doubtless be a readjustment of school 
finance, economy through uniform accounting, uniform standards of 
expenditures, uniform schedule of teachers' salaries, elimination of 
competition and better comity between towns and cities, emulation 
in educational standards rather than in economic prestige, estab- 
Hshment of standards and school practice on merit rather than- on 
getting money from the State, and all contributing to an equalization 
of taxation and school advantages, so far as practicable. 

While the Commission has pointed out this ideal solution to in- 
dicate the magnitude and difficulty of the state's educational prob- 
lem, it realizes that the time is not ripe for its adoption. Such a 
radical change would involve a change in our tax system, with 
uniformity of assessment, and a readjustment of state finances for 
which we are not prepared. The Commission, therefore, has regard 
for the restrictions and limitations of its service, and offers in the 
following conclusions and recommendations only what it believes to 
be eminently practical and urgent for the improvement of pubhc 
education. 

School Finance, 

The direct and collateral questions relating to the financing of our 
public schools are perhaps the most perplexing of any with which the 
Commission had to deal. The great differences between the various 
municipalities in population, wealth, transportation facilities, supply 
of teachers, school buildings and the like, together with the fact that 
there is wide divergence of practice in, as well as of opinion regarding, 
the management of school finances, makes the formulation of a com- 
prehensive plan or system extremely difficult ; and if it is to result in 



19 

a real and permanent improvement necessitates, first of all, more or 
less substantial changes and modifications in the present loose and 
decentralized fiscal control. 



Municipal A ccounting . 

The lack of uniformity in municipal accounting caused difficulty 
in the collection of data for comparative purposes, and the experience 
of the Commission in this regard has been similar to that of all those 
who have attempted to study fiscal operations comparatively in the 
various municipalities. The need of uniformity in accounting and 
auditing is strikingly apparent not only in school financing but in 
that of all governmental activities. 

Uniform Sy stein of Accounting Recommended. 

It appears to the Commission that this defect, at least so far as 
school finances are concerned, should be remedied positively and at 
once. The Commission therefore recommends that the Commis- 
sioner of Education shall prescribe a uniform system of accounting 
for school committees and town treasurers, and also uniform systems 
for keeping other school records and reports and records of the com- 
mittee, and that he shall furnish blanks, cards, forms and books for 
such records and reports to the proper authorities; and that the 
Commissioner be also authorized and directed to examine from time 
to time, or cause to be examined by some competent person author- 
ized by him, the accounts and other records of school committees. 

Need of Exact Information. — Proposed Remedy. 

In many localities it is not only practically impossible for the 
taxpayer to ascertain what amount will be required for the mainte- 
nance of the schools for the ensuing year, but also to determine what 
the expense has been for the preceding year. This uncertainty, 
caused by unscientific accounting and the lack of any definite fiscal 
policy, results necessarily in dissatisfaction and suspicion on the part 
of the taxpayer, precipitates lengthy and acrimonious discussions in 
town meeting with resultant discouragement of the school com- 
mittee and teachers, and a general demoralization of such little 



20 

system as there is. The remedy for this state of affairs appears to be 
found in the presentation of a report prepared by the school com- 
mittee, in such detail and in such form as the Commissioner of 
Education shall prescribe, to the annual town meeting. In the 
report, which is in fact a budget, will be found estimates of the 
amounts necessary to be appropriated and recommendations for the 
support of the public schools for the ensuing fiscal year. The Com- 
missioner of Education shall furnish blanks for this report, and the 
report must be filed with the Commissioner not less than thirty days 
before the date of the annual town meeting. This report in con- 
nection with the accounts of the town treasurer under the proposed 
system will furnish sufficiently complete information for the year 
past and ensuing to enable the town meeting to pass intelligently 
upon the matters before it, and to formulate and maintain a con- 
sistent fiscal policy in regard to the public schools. 

Inadequate State Support. 

After most careful consideration the Commission is of the opinion 
that the amount, $120,000, annually appropriated by the state for 
the support of public schools in the several towns is inadequate, and 
that the method of apportionment is unsatisfactory. This appro- 
priation was first made in 1886 and it has not been increased, or the 
method of apportionment changed, up to the present time. The 
most casual consideration of the great increases in school population, 
taxable property, the cost of material and service, the increase in 
amount and improvement in the quality of training demanded is 
sufficient to indicate the inadequacy of this sum to meet present 
requirements. The present method of apportionment is unsatis- 
factory, and the simple expedient of increasing the amount of funds 
distributed will not cure, but tend to aggravate, the difficulty. 
Therefore a change in the method of apportionment appears not only 
desirable but necessary if the aid afforded by the State is to be most 
effective. The Commission estimates that the amount necessary to 
be appropriated annually to assist properly the several towns in the 
support of public schools is $320,000, this sum to be apportioned 
according to the following plan: 1st, on the basis of the number of 
schools, three hundred dollors for each school from one to five in- 
clusive, two hundred and fifty dollars for each school from six to ten 
inclusive, two hundred dollars for each school from eleven to fifteen 



21 

inclusive, one hundred and fifty dollars for each school from sixteen 
to twenty inclusive, and one hundred dollars for each school from 
twenty-one to twenty-five inclusive. 2nd, the remainder on the 
basis of average attendance in the preceding school year. Provided 
that the apportionment to any town shall not be less than one 
thousand dollars on the per capita basis. The commission is advised, 
however, that so large a sum is not available at present, and it there- 
fore recommends that an annual appropriation sufficient to carry into 
effect the following plan, be made : — 

First, on the basis of the num])er of schools, $300 for each school 
from one to five inclusive, $250 for each school from six to ten in- 
clusive, $200 for each school fi'om eleven to fifteen inclusive and $150 
for each school from sixteen to twenty inclusive. 

Second, on the basis of average attendance in the preceding school 
year, $1.50 per capita, provided that the apportionment on the per 
capita basis shall not be less than $1,000 per town, and provided, 
further, that no town shall receive on the per capita basis less than it 
so received in the year 1921. 

The following table gives the amoimts received by the several 
cities and towns under the present system and the amounts that will 
be received under the proposed system in 1922. The amount 
necessary to be appropriated for carrying this plan into effect during 
1922 is shown to be $270,315,55. 



22 



Apportionment of Appropriation as Recommended. 



TOWNS. 



No. 

of 

schools. 



Amount 

on 
schools. 



Amount 

per 
capita. 



Total. 



Apportion- 
ment for 
1921. 



Barrington 

Bristol 

Burrillville 

Central Falls 

Charlestown 

Coventry 

Cranston 

Cumberland 

East Greenwich. . , 
East Providence . 

Exeter 

Foster 

Glocester 

IJopkinton 

Jamestown 

Johnston 

Lincoln 

Little Compton. . 

Middletown 

Narragansett. . . . , 

Newport 

New Shoreham . . , 
North Kingstown 
North Providence 
North Smithfield. 

Pawtucket 

Portsmouth 

Providence 

Richmond 

Scituate 

Smithfield 

South Kingstown 

Tiverton 

Warren 

Warwick 

Westerly. 

West Greenwich . 

West Warwick 

Woonsocket 

Total 



20 

48 

33 

54 

6 

25 

130 

37 

17 

90 

8 

9 

9 

16 

8 

31 

33 

9 

9 

5 

94 

6 

19 

32 

14 

233 

12 

886 

9 

15 

17 

26 

23 

36 

69 

40 

4 

59 

115 



$4,500.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 
1,750.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 
4,050.00 
4,500.00 
2,250.00 
2,500.00 
2,500 . 00 
3,900.00 
2,250.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 

- 2,500.00 
2,500.00 
1,500.00 
4,500.00 
1,750.00 
4,350.00 
4,500.00 
3,550.00 
4,500.00 
3,150.00 
4,500.00 
2,500.00 
3,750.00 
4,050.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 
1,200.00 
4,500.00 
4,500.00 



$1,000.00 
2,386.50 
1,569.00 
2,897 . 05 
1,000.00 
1,050.00 
6,312.00 
1,575,00 
1,000.00 
4,938.00 
1,000.00 
1,000.00 
1,000.00 
1,000.00 
1,000.00 
1,780.50 
1,456.50 
1,000.00 
1,000.00 
1,000.00 
5,268.00 
1,000.00 
1,000.00 
1,870.50 
1,000.00 

10,522.50 
1,000.00 

46,960.50 
1,000.00 
1,000.00 
1,000.00 
1,592.00 
1,000.00 
1,618.50 
3,394.50 
2,335.50 
1,000.00 
2,602.50 
5,686.50 



$5,500.00 
6,886.50 
6,069.00 
7,397.05 
2,750.00 
5,550.00 

10,812.00 
6,075.00 
5,050.00 
9,438.00 
3,250.00 
3,500.00 
3,500.00 
4,900.00 
3,250.00 
6,280.50 
5,956.50 
3,500.00 
3,500.00 
2,500.00 
9,768.00 
2,750.00 
5,350.00 
6,370.50 
4,550.00 

15,022.50 
4,150.00 

51,460.50 
2,500.00 
4,750.00 
5,050.00 
6,092.00 
5,500.00 
6,118.50 
7,894.50 
6,835.50 
2,200.00 
7,102.50 

10,186.50 



$2,010.33 
2,906.36 
2,423.43 
4,397.05 

785.95 
2,175.78 
4,586.14 
2,704.91 
1,815.33 
4,090.86 
1,255.33 
1,483.80 
1,541.82 
1,679.42 
1,067.60 
2,509.91 
2,654.42 
1,051 . 49 
1,165.37 

800.99 
4,289.08 

678.43 
1,831.98 
2,676,98 
1,885.16 
7,668.53 
1,544.87 
27,976.38 
1,381.03 
1,807.27 
1,884.63 
2,007.64 
2,031.28 
2,479.83 
3,357.59 
2,690.41 

531.16 
3,710.53 
6,460.93 



2,306 $144,500.00 



$125,815.55 $270,315.55 $120,000.00 



23 



Municipal Appropriations, 

It is also recommended that the several cities and towns shall 
appropriate a sum not less than the average amount raised by 
taxation and expended for the maintenance of the pubUc schools for 
the school years 1919-20-21, provided, however, that if this average 
amount shall be less than 30 cents on each $100 of assessed valuation, 
then an amount shall be appropriated at least equal to an assessment 
of 30 cents on each $100 of assessed valuation. 

If any town neglects or refuses to comply with this provision of law 
the state funds are to be withheld by the General Treasurer in trust 
for the towm until the first day of July in the year next following. 
If, in the meantime, the town has not complied -vNdth the requirements 
of law the sum held in trust becomes forfeited and the General 
Treasurer shall add it to the permanent school fund. 

It is recommended that if the school committee of any town neglects 
or refuses to file with the Commissioner of Education the estimates 
of appropriations required for the maintenance of the public schools 
the Commissioner may withhold the money in the state treasury 
apportioned to such town. 

The Commission also recommends that the Board of Education 
shall prescribe and cause to be enforced all rules and regulations for 
carrying into effect the laws in relation to public schools. This is 
substantially the present law, except that the Board of Education is 
substituted for the Commissioner of Education. In addition it is 
recommended that the Board have authority to withhold the pay- 
ment of the whole, or such portion as may be due, of the apportion- 
ment to any town for the violation or neglect of any law, or for the 
violation or neglect of rules and regulations in pursuance of law, by 
any to^vn or town officer or school committee, and that the Board of 
Education shall report annually to the General Assembly all in- 
fractions of school laws by towns or school officers brought to its 
attention, with a record of the action taken by the Board. The 
report shall also contain a summary of its findings upon surveys of 
schools made by it in accordance with law. 

The following change in the method of disposition of the income 
from the permanent school fund is recommended. The income 
arising from this fund shall be annually appropriated as an emergency 
fund for the support of public schools in the several towns and may 
be expended by the Board of Education upon recommendation of the 



24 

Commissioner of Education, and if, however, there is any balance of 
the fund remaining unexpended in any year it shall become a part of 
the permanent fund. 

Minimum Salary of Teachers Recommended. 

In connection with other matters relating to fiscal management 
and policies as affecting public education considerable time and 
attention was devoted to the question of minimum salaries for 
teachers, and the Commission recommends in this regard that the 
annual salary of a teacher regularly employed in any public school, 
except as authorized by the State Board of Education, shall be not 
less than six hundred and fifty dollars. This advance it is antici- 
pated will tend to increase efficiency in the teaching staff, reduce to 
some extent at least the discrepancy in salaries in different towns, 
and because of the increased apportionments to the several towns 
will not cause any additional strain upon their available funds. 

School Property Exempt from Taxation. 

The investigations of the Commission developed the fact that 
considerable amounts of property were not being taxed on the ground 
that it was school property, but no means were provided by law to 
determine accurately whether the property was justly entitled to 
exemption or not. It was also ascertained that many of these schools 
did not make returns to the Board of Education or the school com- 
mittees; it is therefore recommended by the Commission that schools 
which do not make the proper returns, or refuse to permit visitations 
by the proper authority as provided by law, shall not be entitled to 
exemption from taxation, and that the Board of Education or the 
superintendent of schools, as the case may be, shall notify the 
assessors of taxes in the town in which the school is located of such 
refusal or neglect. 

School Administration. 

The people of the State have every reason to be proud of the 
educational system that has been built up under the present school 
administration whereby the schools are controlled and governed by 
locally chosen school committees which have rendered a generally 
disinterested and unselfish service in every town and city. 



25 

Such a system creates a local responsibility and pride, stimulates 
initiative and interest, and has in practice always proved far superior 
to a system of centralized control by the state. 

We should not, however, be blind to the fact that, in the actual 
practice of our present system, many defects are apparent, which for 
the most part, the Commission believes, can be remedied by the 
changes in existing laws and practices which are recommended in 
this report. 

Any system, however excellent in theoiy, will fail unless the same 
is administered with intelligence and ability. In fact, intelligence 
and ability will operate to produce excellent results in the absence of 
any system promulgated by law or otherwise. It has always proved 
difficult to find in any one person a knowledge of the educational 
requirements necessary to a proper administration of the schools 
combined with a sound business judgment as to general school and 
municipal finance. Too frequently the school budgets are made up 
without proper regard for the financial ability of the municipality, 
and its other essential requirements, such as highways, police and 
fire protection, and sanitation, are forced to give way to the desire 
of a school committee to excel in the matter of school buildings, 
teachers' salaries, and new courses of study. 

The protection of local school committees and superintendents, 
which our laws afford, should not be permitted to operate to conceal 
or prolong extravagance and inefficiency. The reform of the local 
municipal school administration in most of the towns and cities can 
only be effected after two biennial elections, which requires four 
years, and during this entire period the work of the schools is nec- 
essarily disrupted to the manifest injury of the schools, the very thing 
that the honest advocate of reform in administration desires to 
avoid. 

The local system of construction of school buildings has resulted 
in a lack of uniformity in school buildings, particularly in the matter 
of heating, lighting, ventilation and sanitary conditions, which a 
centralized system of approval of plans would almost entirely remove. 

There should also be a reasonable uniformity in the courses of study 
in the several towns and cities in order that children who have com- 
pleted the same courses or periods of school instruction in different 
towns and cities may meet on an equal basis. 

In many, if not most, of our towns and cities there is lack of a 
proper budget or classification of school expenditures. This makes 



26 

impossible a comparison of the several items of school costs in the 
different towns. 

The failure to include bond interest and sinking fund requirements 
on account of schoolhouse construction as a part of town expense 
allocated to support of schools often conceals a substantial part of 
the expense of school maintenance in the financial statistics now 
reported to the towns and to the State Board of Education. 

There is also lacking a proper system of audit of school expendi- 
tures. The remedy for the above defects is to be found partly in 
practice and -partly in legislation. The problem is neither insur- 
mountable nor difficult. In practice, school committees should 
condition their recommendations as to schools upon the financial 
ability of the town, having a due regard for other municipal require- 
ments. The latter consideration is rarely given weight by school 
committees. 

School committees and school superintendents, and they alone, 
can and must check the tendency to expand the school system with 
costly non-essentials beyond the financial ability of the town to 
support. They must "sit on the hd," and like the prudent indi- 
vidyal, curb their desires until such time as the pocketbook will 
permit the satisfaction thereof. 

The necessary remedies through legislation are as follows : 

"a. Require a uniform accounting method or budget of 
school expenditure, including bond interest and sinking fund 
payments on school bonds. 

b. Require school committees to present their financial needs 
to the town meeting in the same form of a budget. 

c. Provide a method whereby an audit of school expenditures 
through a state agency may be possible when occasion so requires. 

d. Provide a method whereby a survey of the school ad- 
ministration may be made through the State Board of Education, 
for the purpose of determining whether such administration is 
proper and efficient, and thus remove the necessity of making 
such question a local political issue to the manifest injury of the 
schools." 

The following are some of the essential obligations of the state in 
the matter of education: 



27 

"a. To provide a reasonably equal opportunity to secure an 
education to all of its children. 

b. To provide such educational facilities through its own 
agency, where the town cannot or does not properly perform such 
duty. 

c. To encourage local endeavor by proper support, financial 
and otherwise. 

d. When the towns and cities reach the point where the local 
expense of support of schools and the other lines of municipal 
activity has reached the limit of the revenue that may be secured 
from the direct taxation of real and personal property, then to 
provide reasonable assistance to the towns from the revenues 
derived from the general state taxes. Such assistance should be 
automatically increased to meet the increased number of the 
school population. 

e. It is the first duty of the state to preserve its own ex- 
istence, and its principal enemy is ignorance, against which 
education is its only insurance." 

IV. Summary of Recommendations. 

1. Increase in appropriation for teachers' salaries. 

2. Conformity of law and practice in school year and change in 

time of reports. 

3. Uniform system and preservation of school records, with pro- 
visions for complete record of attendance. 

4. Statutory provisions governing construction and use of school 

buildings. 

5. Uniform accounting of school revenues and expenditures and 
annual budget for school expenditures. 

6. Fixing responsibility more definitely and adjusting powers to 

responsibilitv. 

7. Investment of state school fund and use of annual income 

therefrom. 

8. Increase of minimum salary of teachers and provisions m case 
towns are unable to maintain schools of proper standard. 

9 Uniformity in approval of attendance of pupils in private 
schools, and required records of attendance therein as m public 
schools. 

10. Protection of schools from interference with school work. 



28 



V. Legislation Proposed and Recommended by the Com- 
mission. 

The following amendments to existing school law are recommended 
by the Commission for the improvement of school management and 
an increase in school revenues. It is not expected that they will solve 
all our educational problems at once, but they are designed to pro- 
vide for immediate needs, to promote a progressive development of 
school organization and to conserve the integrity of our educational 
enterprise. Sections to which amendments are proposed are given 
in full and all changes are indicated in italics. 

Chapter 65, General Laws. 

Section 1 and Sec. 2. The general assembly shall appropriate 
annually for the support of public schools in the several towns a sum 
sufficient to carry out the provisions of this section, and the commis- 
sioner of education shall apportion such appropriation among the 
several towns: first, oh the basis of the number of schools, three hundred 
dollars for each school up to five schools, two hundred fifty dollars for each 
school from six to ten schools, two hundred dollars for each school from 
eleven to fifteen schools, one hundred fifty dollars for each school from' 
sixteen to twenty schools; second, on the basis of one dollar and fifty 
cents per capita of average attendance in the preceding school year, 
provided that the apportionment to any town shall not be less than one 
thousand dollars on the per capita basis, and provided, further, that no 
town shall receive on the per capita basis less than it so received in the 
year 1921. 

Sec. 4. No town shall receive any part of such state appropria- 
tion, unless it has raised by tax, for the support of public schools, a 
sum equal to not less than thirty cents on each one hundred dollars of 
the assessed valuation of the town, and not less than the average amount 
raised by tax and expended by the town for the current ynaintenance of 
public schools for the school years enditig in the years 1919, 1920 and 
1921. 

Sec. 5. If any town shall neglect or refuse to raise or appropriate 
the sum required in the preceding section on or before the first day of 
July in any year, its proportion of the public money shall be withheld, 
and the general treasurer, on being informed thereof in writing by the 
commissioner of education, shall hold any public money otherwise due 
the town in trust for the town until such time, not later than the first day 



29 

of July in the year next following, as the commissioner of education 
shall notify the general treasurer in writing that the town has complied 
with the provisions of the preceding section and has taken such other 
action in the premises as the commissioner ivith the approval of the 
state hoard of education shall order, and thereafter said proportion of 
the public money, in the absence of such latter notification, shall be 
forfeited, and the general treasurer shall add it to the permanent school 
fund. 

Chapter 66, General Laws. 

"Sec. 12. The town treasurer shall, before the tenth day of July 
in each year, submit to the school committee a statement of all 
moneys applicable to the support of public schools for the current 
school year, specifying the sources of the same." 

"Sec. 13. The town treasurer shall, on or before the first day of 
August, annually, transmit to the commissioner of education a certifi- 
cate of the amount which the town has voted to raise by tax for the 
support of public schools for the current year ; and also a statement of 
the amount paid out to the order of the school committee, and from 
what sources it was derived, for the year ending the thirtieth day of 
June next preceding; and until such return is made to the commis- 
sioner, he may, in his discretion, withhold the order for the money in 
the state treasury apportioned to such town." 

"Sec. 14. The clerk of the school committee, when required by the 
state board of education, shall distribute such school documents and 
blanks as shall be sent to him to the persons for whom they are 
intended." 

Chapter 66, General Laws. 

Sec. 18. The superintendent of schools shall record on cards to be 
provided by the commissioner of education the names of all persons 
between the ages of 4 and 21 years, inclusive, ascertained in the manner 
provided by section 16 of this chapter, and shall also record the attend- 
ance of such persons at public schools or on private instruction approved 
as required by law; and shall promptly report to the truant officer the 
names of all persons required to attend school under the provisions of 
Chapter 72 of the General Laws who are not actually enrolled and attend- 
ing school as shown by the records required by this section. 



30 

Sec. 19. The annual school census returns shall be preserved by the 
school committee for the period of five years after the taking thereof, and 
said school committee shall also provide for the suitable custody and 
preservation of school registers and other records of public and private 
schools as required by law. 

Chapter 67, General Laws. 
Chapter 1521, Public Laws (1917). 

Sec. 3. The school committee shall locate all schoolhouses and 
shall not abandon or change the location of any without good cause; 
and said school committee shall have the care and control of all public 
school buildings and other public school property, including the 
purchase of furniture and other school equipment, and repairs of 
school buildings, unless otherwise provided by special law or charter. 
The school committee, subject to such rules and regulations as it may 
prescribe under the direction of the commissioner of education, may 
permit the use of school buildings only out of school hours and under 
conditions that shall not interfere with the regular sessions of the schools, 
and only for purposes directly connected with public education. The 
school committee shall include in its annual report a list of all permits 
for such use of public school buildings granted during the period covered 
by said report. 

Sec. 10. The school committee shall prepare and submit annually 
to the commissioner of education, on or before the first day of August, 
a report in manner and form by him prescribed. They shall also 
prepare and submit annually, to the commissioner of education, not less 
than thirty days before the date of the annual town meeting, in such 
detail and form as may by him be prescribed, their estimates and rec- 
ommendations of the amounts necessary to be appropriated for the 
support of public schools for the fiscal year then ensuing; and until such 
report is made, and if such estimates and recommendations are not 
presented to the commissioner, he may refuse to draw his order for the 
money in the state treasury apportioned to such town: provided, that 
the necessary blank for such report has been furnished by the commis- 
sioner on or before the first day of June, next preceding; and the nec- 
essary form for such estimates and recommendations shall have been 
furnished by the commissioner not less than sixty days before the date of 
the annual town yneeting; they shall also prepare and submit annually 
to the commissioner of education and at the annual town meeting, a 



31 

report to the town, setting forth their doings, the state and condition 
of the schools and plans for their improvements, which report, unless 
printed, shall be read in open meeting; and if printed, at least three 
copies shall be transmitted to the commissioner on or before the day 
. of the annual town meeting in each year. 

Chapter 68, General Laws. 

Sec. 6. Every teacher in any public or private school shall keep 
a register of the names of all the scholars attending said school, their 
sex, age, names of parents or guardians, the time when each scholar 
enters and leaves the school, the daily attendance, together with the 
days of the month on which the school is visited by any officer con- 
nected wdth public schools, and shall prepare any report required by 
the school committee or commissioner of education. 

Chapter 63, General Laws. 

Sec. 5. The board of education shall hold quarterly meetings in 
the first week of March, June, September and December of each 
year at the office of the commissioner of education, and may hold 
special meetings at the call of the president or secretary. The hoard 
of education shall prescribe and cause to be enforced all rules and 
regulations necessary for carrying into effect the laws in relation to 
public schools. The hoard may for violation or neglect of law or for 
violation or neglect of rules and regulations in pursuance of law by any 
town or town officer or school committee order the general treasurer to 
withhold the payment of any portion of the public 7noney that has been 
or may be apportioned to any such town; and the general treasurer upon 
the receipt in writing of such order shall hold the public inoney due any 
such town in trust until such time as the board of education shall notify 
him that the town has complied with such order as the board shall make 
in the premises, in which case payment shall he made to the town forth- 
with. The board of education shall report to the general assembly 
annually cdl infractions of school law which shall be brought to its 
attention, with a record of such action as the board shall have taken in 
each instance. 

Sec. 2L The state hoard of education may from lime to time make 
or cause to be made a survey of the schools of any town, and shall make 
such survey upon the request of the school committee of any town. The 
state board of education shall include in its annual report to the general 



32 

assembly a summary of its finding upon such surveys with such rec- 
ommendations as shall seem advisable. 

Chapter 725, Public Laws, (1911). 

Sec. 3. The state board of education from time to time shall 
approve proper standards of lighting, heating, ventilating, seating, 
and other sanitary arrangements of school buildings, and proper 
regulations concerning the same as it may deem necessary for the 
safety and health of persons who may attend school, and shall com- 
municate the same to the school committee of each town and city 
and to any committee of any body having charge of the erection, 
alteral^ions, equipment or furnishing of any school building. The 
school committee or such other committee as may have charge of the con- 
struction or alteration of schoolhouses shall not proceed with the con- 
struction or alteration thereof until the plans for such buildings or 
alterations shall have been submitted to and approved by the board of 
education. 

Chapter 64, General Laws. 

Sec. 13. The commissioner of education shall prescribe a uniform 
system for keeping school records, including the records of school com- 
mittees, and for making such reports as may be required by law, and 
shall furnish such cards, forms, blank books and record books as shall be 
required for such purposes. The commissioner of education shall also 
prescribe a uniform system of accounting for school committees and- 
town treasurers with reference to public money appropriated for public 
schools, and he is hereby authorized and directed to examine from time to 
time, or cause to be examined by some competent person duly appointed 
by said commissioner, the accounts and other records of school committees. 

Chapter 40, General Laws. 

Section 1, The general treasurer, with the advice of the gov- 
ernor, shall have full power to regulate the custody and safe keeping 
of the fund now constituting the permanent fund for the support of 
pubHc schools, and shall keep the same securely invested in bonds or 
notes of the United States, or in bonds of towns or cities within this 
state : Provided, that the securites in which said fund is invested at the 
time of the passage of this act may remain a part of said fund until 
exchanged for other securities. 



33 

Sec. 4. The general treasurer, with the advice of the governor, 
shall from time to time securely invest all sums of money hereby 
directed to be added to said fund in bonds or notes of the United 
States or in bonds of any town or city within this state. 

Sec. 5. The income arising from said fund so invested shall annually 
he appropriated as an emergency fund for the support of the public 
schools in the several towns, which income or any part thereof may from 
time to time be apportioned or expended by the state board of education, 
upon the reco^nmendation of the commissioner of education, for the 
support of public schools. Any balance of said emergency fund remain- 
ing unexpended in any year shall become a part of the permanent school 
fund. 

Chapter 458, Public Laws (1909). 

Chapter 1794, Public Laws (1919). 

Section 1. The annual salary of a teacher regularly employed in 
any public school, except as authorized by the state board of education, 
shall be not less than six hundred fifty dollars. 

Chapter 74, General Laws. 

Sec. 5. There shall be an annual appropriation for the purposes 
of this chapter; and the state auditor is hereby authorized and 
directed to draw his orders on the general treasurer in favor of such 
towns for such sums as shall be certified to him by the commissioner 
of education as due to said towns under the provisions of this chapter. 

Sec. 6. In the apportionment of the annual appropriation for the 
support of public schools, no town shall forfeit any portion thereof 
hereafter on account of any reduction in the number of its schools 
by reason of the consolidation thereof in accordance with the pro- 
visions of this chapter, but each town shall continue to be entitled to 
its proportional amount from said annual appropriation upon the 
basis of the number of schools prior to such consolidation. 

Chapter 947, Public Laws (1913). 

Section 1. The school committee of any town in which the 
taxable property is not adequate at the average rate of taxation for 
public school support throughout the state to provide, with the 



34 

moneys that may be apportioned from the general treasury, an 
amount sufficient to provide and maintain pubhc schools of a high 
standard, may at a regular meeting held before the first day of July in 
any year request the state hoard of education to assume the supervision, 
control and management of the public schools of the town for the ensuing 
year, provided that the town has appropriated for the support of public 
schools for said year a sum equivalent to thirty cents on each one hundred 
dollars of the assessed valuation of the town. Upon receiving such 
request the state board of education, if it shall be satisfied that the 
request is warranted and that the best interests of the public schools will 
be served thereby, may assume such supervision, control and manage- 
ment. For the purposes of this chapter the state board of education 
shall be subrogated to all the powers and functions of the town school 
committee, including the right to draw orders upon the town treasurer 
for the payment for the support of the public schools of the town of any 
money in the town treasury required by law to be accredited to the public 
school account. The state board of education may also apportion to or 
expend for the support of the public schools of the town any part of the 
annual appropriation for public schools provided by section one of 
chapter 65 of the general laws as amended as shall not be apportioned or 
appropriated for other purposes. 

Chapters 63, 72, 73, General Laws. 

Chapter 63, General Laws. 

Sec. 11. All private schools or institutions of learning in this 
state shall be registered at the office of the state board of education, 
said registry showing location, name, officers or persons in charge, 
grade of instruction, and common language used in teaching. They 
shall also make a report annually in the month of July to the state 
board of education, showing the number of different pupils enrolled, 
the average attendance, the number of teachers employed and such 
other facts of age, attendance and instruction as said hoard may require. 
(Chapter 72, Sec. 2.) The state hoard of education shall provide 
■for an annual inspection of all private schools in the state and approve 
a private school only when it appears that the period of attendance 
of the pupils in such school is substantially equal to that required 
by law in public schools, that the instruction in such school in all 
studies except foreign languages and any studies not taught in the 



35 

public schools is in the English language, that such instruction is 
thorough and efficient, that reports are made as required by law, and 
that registers are kept and returns to the superintendent of schools 
and truant officer in relation to attendance of pupils are made the 
same as by public schools. 

Chapter 72, General Laws. 

Chapter 1492, Public Laws. 

Section L Every child who has completed seven years of life 
and has not completed sixteen years of life, unless he has completed 
in the public schools the elementary studies taught in the first eight 
years of school attendance, exclusive of kindergarten instruction, 
provided for in the course of study adopted by the school committee 
of the city or town wherein such child resides, or unless he shall have 
completed fourteen years of life and shall be lawfully employed at 
labor or at service or engaged in business, shall regularly attend some 
public day school during all the days and hours that the pubhc schools 
are in session in the city or town wherein he resides; and every 
person having under his control a child as above described in this 
section shall cause such child to attend school as required by the 
above stated provisions of this section, and for every neglect of such 
duty the person having control of such child shall be fined not ex- 
ceeding twenty dollars : Provided, that if the person so charged shall 
prove or shall present a certificate made by or under the direction of 
the school committee of the city or town wherein he resides, setting 
forth that the child has already completed the elementary studies 
above mentioned; or that the child has been excused in writing hy the 
superintendent of public schools in the town or city in which the child 
resides and has attended for the required period of time a private day 
school, or received private instmction, approved by the state board of 
education; or that the physical or mental condition of the child was 
such as to render his attendance at school inexpedient or imprac- 
ticable; or that the child was destitute of clothing suitable for 
attending school and that the person having control of said child was 
unable to provide suitable clothing; or that the child was excluded 
from school by virtue of some general law or regulation — then such 
attendance shall not be obligatory nor shall such penalty be in- 
curred; but nothing in this section shall be construed to allow the 
absence or irregular attendance of any child who is enrolled as a 



36 

member of any school, or of any child sent to school by the person 
having control of such child." 

Sec. 2. For the purposes of this chapter the superintendent of schools 
shall excuse a child from attendance in a public day school only to attend 
a private school or to receive private instruction approved by the state 
board of education; and the superintendent may revoke such excuse for 
non-attendance, irregular attendance or other reasonable cause. 

Chapter 73, General Laws. 

Sec. 4. Whenever such school shall refuse to permit such visita- 
tions, when requested, or shall refuse or neglect to keep the school 
register and to make returns as required by law, its exemption from 
taxation shall thereafter cease and be determined; and the state 
board of education or the superintendent of -schools as the case may be 
shall notify the assessors of taxes in the town or city wherein such school 
may be located of such refusal or neglect. 

Chapter 73, General Laws. 

Sec. 13. Excepting under rules and regulations promulgated from 
time to time by the state board of education, no teacher employed in any 
public school shall, for any purpose whatsoever, solicit, exact or receive 
from any pupil in any public school any contribution or gift of money 
or any article of value, or any pledge to contribute any money or article 
of value; nor shall any article be sold or, offered for sale to public school 
pupils or teachers on any public school premises, nor shall any article be 
sold through the agency of pupils in the public schools excepting the sale 
of school lunches under rules and regulations prescribed by the school 
committee; nor shall any teacher in any public school solicit or receive 
from pupils subscriptions for any newspaper, periodical or magazine, 
or act as agent directly or indirectly for the distribution of such publica- 
tions in the public schools; nor shall any teacher in any public school, at 
any time other than during the regular summer vacation of the public 
schools, accept any fee or gijt for the tutoring of any child regularly under 
the instruction of such teacher; nor shall any person distribute through 
or in the public schools or to children on their way to or from school any 
circular, sample, package, coupon, ticket or other similar advertising 
matter. 

Sec. 14. No society, secret or otherwise, no fraternity or sorority, and 
no club to membership in which less than the entire student body shall be 



37 

eligible shall he formed in any public school or among the pupils of the 
public schools, provided: That this section not apply to class or school 
organizations formed and conducted exclusively for the purpose of pro- 
moting approved school activities, and subject to supervision and direc- 
tion by teachers under rules and regidations prescribed by school com- 
mittees. 

Sec. 15. Whoever shall violate any provision of the precedinx) two 
sections shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and for each such offence shall 
be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars. 

The repeal of the following sections is recommended: Section 13 
of Chapter 63, Section 6 of Chapter 65, Section 9 of Chapter 73, 
Section 9 of Chapter 101, and Section 2 of Chapter 458 of the General 
Laws; and Chapter 1794 of the Public Laws. 



